The excavation uncovered portions of a wall around a fortress built in the 11th century. Pic: Ernelle Berliet

FRENCH archaeologist Ernelle Berliet, in cooperation with her Myanmar counterparts, has excavated the ruins of one of 43 fortresses built by King Anawrahta of Bagan during the 11th century.

Ms Berliet – an associate researcher at the Paris-based Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – along with a team of researchers from the Department of Archaeology in Mandalay, excavated the site in April.

The researchers uncovered a perimeter wall and some religious structures at the Thagara fortress, located near Thazi in Mandalay Division, during their excavations from April 6 to 12 and 20 to 27.

Ms Berliet said the site is one of 27 she located during surveys for her PhD between 2002 and 2004.

Last December and March she also took a number of aerial photographs by kite.

“We wanted to have photographs of the site to compare how it looks during the dry season and the wet season.

“When it is dry and there is very little vegetation on the ground, you can see the overall structure much better. But when it’s wet you can see the environment and the surrounding fields,” she said.

To locate the 27 fortresses, Ms Berliet said she relied heavily on Professor G H Luce’s English-language translation of the Glass Palace Chronicle.

She also relied on additional research work by Professor Luce, a noted Bagan historian who identified the locations of 33 of Anawrahta’s fortresses in the last century.

The Glass Palace Chronicle, written in 1823, is an account of Myanmar’s history compiled by local scholars. It is controversial because it combines history with myth and folklore where more concrete sources of information were unavailable.

However, Ms Berliet said that in the case of Anawrahta’s line of fortresses it appears to be correct.

“Many people say the Glass Palace Chronicle is not a reliable text but some of it is based on ancient inscriptions and material that we have now lost, so for a lot of Myanmar’s history this is the only record we have,” she said.

“It has been proven to be wrong on some points. But I’ve found that it also contains some reliable material.”

According to the chronicle, King Anawrahta, who ruled Bagan from 1044 to 1077 AD, ordered the construction of 43 fortresses stretching in a line from Bhamo to Toungoo.

Ms Berliet said that Anawrahta’s row of strongholds were unique in Southeast Asia.

“This line is unique in Southeast Asia because the buildings served a specialised (defensive) purpose. It is significant because it shows the administration and organisation of the state. From a political point of view these fortifications were a tool for exercising the state’s power,” she said.

She said a number of factors made the Thagara site perfect for excavation.
“We had several reasons for choosing this site for the excavation: First, the whole layout is complete. Second, we could see some mounds on the surface and this helps guide us when we start digging. We correctly guessed that the mounds were hiding some other structures,” she said.

Another reason the Thagara site was chosen for excavation was accessibility.
“This site is not part of the nearby village and is just farming fields. So, I waited until after March to begin the excavation project,” she said.

She said that among the visible features on the 11.7 hectare site – used by locals to grow dry-season crops such as sunflowers – was a high mound found to be covering two stupas, one of which contained an ancient Buddha image. The site’s perimeter is a 1407-metre brick wall.

Ms Berliet said she believed the two stupas were probably added long after the original fortifications were built.

“The excavations show that the religious complex was built later than the city wall because the enclosure goes above the original wall. In one section the wall forms part of the enclosure,” she said, adding that it was illogical to build a religious structure so close to the perimeter of a military complex.

Ms Berliet said she plans to continue excavations next February and March, during which she plans to study the central portion of the fortress to better gauge the chronology of the site.

In the meantime several charcoal and pipe samples from the site have been sent to France for carbon dating but Ms Berliet is not holding her breath – she said they can take a year to come back from the laboratory.

She said she would like to study the site far more extensively over a four–to–five–year period but would settle for less if she had to.

“It depends on whether I can have a team after the excavation to study the materials we find – like the pottery and other implements,” she said.

“The problem is that once you open up a few square metres you realise it’s only a very small window on the site. You never finish.”